Annotated Bibliography
Bivins, T. (2009). Meta-issues Across The Media. Mixed Media : Moral Distinctions in Advertising, Public Relations, and Journalism (2nd Edition) (pp. 113-128). Florence, KY, USA: Routledge.
The author of this book, Tom Bivins, has outlined several aspects about ethics of journalism. In these pages, he explains mostly about the importance of truth to the intended audience, whether it is a news piece or a press release by the PR's. He uses several examples to demonstrate the subjectivity of the "truth", as in a legal concept, where journalists reporting defamation claims by celebrities in court cases are considered ethically reasonable, whereas a slight misreporting of a certain event is completely unacceptable. Then, he goes forward to a journalistic view discussing about accuracy, context and balance - some generally spoken elements that contributes to a journalistic truth. The author talked about truth in the fields of advertising and public relations as well, by which truth is as crucial to both of them as it is to journalism. In a given example, a soft drink advertisement uses a subtle ambience to imply happiness when drinking the product, which has basically no stated facts about the product, doesn't necessarily mean they are not telling the truth as they have given a choice for the audience to testify the claim by purchasing the product. Advertising companies understand "image" means everything, so it would have more impact by interpreting them into a form of visual language than simply stating the specifics of the product. For public relations, truthful claims given by PR are equally important, their actual quote speech can be made up, but they still need to stick to the facts, as in PR, credibility is the ultimate goal. The excellent portrayal of examples by the author has given a very straightforward idea of what truth means to journalism, as well as advertising and PR.
Barrett, J. (2007). Ethics on the Web: Is Truthful Journalism Facing a Crisis? Retrieved from http://www.dailytech.com/Ethics+on+the+Web++Is+Truthful+Journalism+Facing+a+Crisis/article9466.htm
The author of this article talks about how some tech review websites are doing harm to the product review journalism, where websites would post their hands-on impressions and critics for tech products like iPhone and gadgets alike. However, the chance for giving too much promotion for the products has pulled down the overall landscape of quality journalism. The never-ending entanglement between tech companies/advertisers and journalists in this branch has caused some technology writers just to win advertising since they would only write reviews for the advertising companies who are holding banners on their sites. The main objective for this kind of journalism is to report and inform readers on how good or bad a certain product is, and provide recommendations. But apparently the money impact from the advertisers has done a great harm by making technology journalists to favour only their products with good coverage, but not the others. Their bias are leaning towards the advertisers and not about informing the truthful message to the intended audience. That contradicts with the "balance" element of journalistic truth as mentioned above, in this case, it is no longer fair that a tech website would report only one group of products which are already advertising on their website, making it as if the readers aren't having enough of the flashy ads. As the annotated book above has said, "Balance is related directly both to accuracy and to context" (Bivins, 2009, p.118). Making such a bigoted stance on a general tech review website has completely distort the reader's trust and their own credibility to the reader.
The Starcom Translator. (2009). Retrieved from http://mumbrella.com.au/the-starcom-translator-4168
This is an example of a PR press release from Starcom MediaVest Group, whose job is a mediator between a brand and the target audience. The writer of this particular article has demonstrated how much blurred and vague terms have thrown into a press release, making it looks seemingly well-written and formal. The article disassembles, or "translates" the actual meaning which a press release want to convey in a short, concise paragraph, and discard any misleading words in a light-hearted and humorous way. However, people normally wouldn't spend time to read on a press release so they might not be able to recognise the flaws and the doublespeak used by PR specialists. PR uses ambiguous terminology and indefinite utterance to deceive the public, giving us an impression of professionalism and comfort towards them. Press release tend to stretch words far beyond their practical and meaningful application (McMillen, 2009) and behind it, there are probably a few people working on it for hours. PR, in my opinion is not about "truth" truth, but a "over-polished" truth, making it look fancy and dandy. Comparing to journalism where truth is told in a straightforward manner, it is a big difference.
Perry, N. (2011). ACCC fines Optus $5 million for misleading broadband services advertising. Retrieved from http://www.couriermail.com.au/business/accc-fines-optus-5-million-for-misleading-broadband-services-advertising/story-e6freqmx-1226090135400
In this news article, the consequences on misleading consumers in Australia has clearly shown by the example from Optus, the telecommunication company who "deserves" a $5 million penalty for advertising dodgy and misleading consumers about the download allowance where they've boasted in their data package. Optus has used a concept to deceive consumers that a certain usage allowance are available in the plan, but has divided during 2 sets of period: the peak and off-peak time during the day, which I have never seen this concept being applied in other places, like Hong Kong for example. That means the allowance only applies if the consumer was careful to ensure that all of his or her off-peak allowance was exhausted before the peak allowance was fully utilised. By not sticking to the facts, Optus has to take the consequence, and in this telcom industry, this is just a tip of iceberg. Consumers may not be smart enough to determine which "plan" and offer will be best suited for them, and by looking at advertisements, their judgement might be distracted by the convincibility of the advertisement and settled it for comfort's sake. Thankfully with The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the dedicated government regulators in Australia, people can get information from them as they are responsible for supervising the market's condition over monopoly and competitions. To conclude, this is a well-written piece on reporting this story in a decent journalistic quality, while the case study of a false marketing and advertising campaign by Optus has proven the public trust and the necessity to be honest, and telling the truth are equally important.
Reference list
Bivins, T. (2009). Meta-issues Across The Media. Mixed Media : Moral Distinctions in Advertising, Public Relations, and Journalism (2nd Edition) (pp. 113-128). Florence, KY, USA: Routledge.
Barrett, J. (2007). Ethics on the Web: Is Truthful Journalism Facing a Crisis? Retrieved from http://www.dailytech.com/Ethics+on+the+Web++Is+Truthful+Journalism+Facing+a+Crisis/article9466.htm
The Starcom Translator. (2009). Retrieved from http://mumbrella.com.au/the-starcom-translator-4168
McMillen, A. (2009, March 30). Public Relations: Unnecessary Distortion. Retrieved from: http://andrewmcmillen.com/2009/03/30/public-relations-unnecessary-distortion/
Perry, N. (2011). ACCC fines Optus $5 million for misleading broadband services advertising. Retrieved from http://www.couriermail.com.au/business/accc-fines-optus-5-million-for-misleading-broadband-services-advertising/story-e6freqmx-1226090135400
D.
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